Jun 27 Support Teachers + Students via #StaplesForStudents

Disclosure: This post reflects a compensated editorial partnership with Staples. This partnership is 100% awesome and relevant since I buy all of my school and office supplies at Staples. All storytelling and opinions about school supply fretting are, of course, my own.

Next month marks my 10th year of blogging, and one of the beautiful evolutions I’ve witnessed during this time is the uptick in social good efforts by bloggers, brands, and celebrities alike. Subsequently, I’m thrilled to be working with Staples this summer to raise awareness about the work they’re doing with Katy Perry to support public school teachers. Because as all parents know, teachers are everything, but man, they’re often not equipped with enough! According to the Education Market Association, almost all (as in, 99.5%) of public school teachers use their own money to equip their classrooms, often at a cost of more than $400 per year.

I suspect it’s often a lot more than $400 per year.

I know it may sound a little weird, but ever since Laurel entered the public school system 7 years ago, I’ve thought a lot about school supplies. Often times the school supply lists are long and I fret about kids who can’t afford the required items. Many years there have been donation requests from teachers for very basic items (hello, COPY PAPER) and I fret about how the teachers will afford their classroom supplies if not enough parents donate. And then when Laurel was in 5th grade, her teacher totally worked reverse psychology magic on me. He only required the kids to bring three items to school (like literally, some pens, a notebook, and a good attitude) and everything else on the list was on a donation basis. This approach led me to buy even more supplies due to aforementioned fretting about parent donations! The bottom line is, there are a lot of needs. And I apparently fret a lot about them!

And here’s where Staples comes in. They have already thrown down a $1 million donation gauntlet (woo hoo!) to DonorsChoose.org, an organization that has funded more than 700,000 classroom projects for teachers, impacting more than 18 million students across the country. Shoppers like you and I can join in the effort and donate in-stores or online.

And here’s another cool thing. Now through September 10, spend $25 or more in any Staples store and you’ll receive a unique entry code on your receipt to enter to win (at Staples.com/StaplesForStudents) a $50,000 scholarship plus a trip for two to Los Angeles to meet Katy Perry. Aside from this grand prize winner, four additional winners plus one guest each will also win air travel to Los Angeles, two nights stay, and spending money to meet Katy Perry at the VIP Winners Celebration. Crazy, right? That’s Firework worthy, for sure!